Coalition government backs down on rape anonymity proposal

The coalition government has backed down on plans to grant pre-charge anonymity to men accused of rape and will instead use the Press Complaints Commission to encourage the media not to name subjects.

The original proposal has come under fire from the Labour Party and from women Conservative MPs, who said it would send the message that women making accusations of rape were not to be believed.

Although the plan was in the coalition agreement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties there were indications last week that the government would not seek to implement the plan through legislation.

Last week Justice Minister Crispin Blunt said that the government wished to solve the issue in a "non-statutory" way. He said, "We are loathe to find even more statutes to put on the statute book."